A driver who was charged an extra £5 after parking up at Broad Marsh for an evening out with his family has branded the situation a "shambles." Shane O'Neill, 39, purchased an evening tariff ticket ahead of a family event on Saturday, October 1, which should have seen him pay £8 for the time he was gone.
Mr O'Neill parked his car at around 7pm and was back in the vehicle by 1.30am - with his ticket stating he would not be charged more if he was back before 2am. However, he returned to his car to see that he had in fact been charged £13, which was not indicated on the car park website.
Mr O'Neill said he was eventually refunded by Nottingham City Council, but it is the "principle" of the situation he wants to alert others to. He says many other cars were parked that night, and that it was "overly busy" in the city, with Goose and Fair and other events at the Motorpoint Arena and Theatre Royal going on, too.
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He wondered how many others may have been overcharged. Mr O'Neill, a planning manager from Mansfield, said: "Myself and my family were going to a family event. I had a look on Broad Marsh's website just to look at parking. I saw that they did an evening tariff which works pretty well for us instead of parking elsewhere.
"I arrived, no problem, this was at around 7pm and came back at about 1.30am. On the website it said if you arrive after 5pm and leave before 2am it's a set price of £8 which is fine, I didn't have an issue with the money side.
"But when we returned at 1.30am to pay it came up with £13 - but there wasn't a £13 on the website which is unusual. So I sent an email to customer services and they came back with 'we're aware of the problem and the matter's been escalated.'
"They've agreed for the difference to be refunded to me which is fine, but I think it's more of the principle. It was a busy evening in the car park, bear in mind that there's been Goose Fair so there were a lot of people who've travelled to Nottingham to go there.
"There was something on at the ice arena and there was something on at the Theatre Royal. So Nottingham was overly busy.
"How many other people parking at that car park haven't even realised? Like I say it's purely the principle.
"I've never experienced anything like that before."
Nottingham City Council put the mistake down to a "software issue" which affected just that evening tariff. They apologised for the mishap.
A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that Mr O’Neill was overcharged and have rightly reimbursed him. There is a software issue affecting just that one evening tariff in terms of how vehicles are logged into and out of the car park. We have engineers from the contractor on-site currently to fix the problem.”
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